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Antivirus programs tested for Windows 8

The AV-TEST Institute has published the first results of its testing of Windows 8 virus scanners. Throughout January and February 2013, the Germany-based virus lab tested nine antivirus programs for corporate networks and 26 for home users. The institute based its results for private users and businesses on three categories: protection, performance and usability. According to AV-TEST, the average "0 day" protection rate of all of the programs increased from 92 per cent in a previous test for Windows 7 to 95 per cent for Windows 8.

AV-TEST gave the operating system's own Windows Defender a score of 11.5 points; most of the other programs scored higher (green: usability, orange: performance, blue: protection)
Source: AV-Test Institute

None of the security features in Windows 8 were disabled during the tests; the Windows SmartScreen filter also stayed on, unless a test candidate deactivated it. The testers considered Windows Defender, the program included with Windows 8, to be basic protection against viruses, with additional programs intended to increase that protection – since, otherwise, there would be no reason to install them.

As expected, almost all of the other programs in the test performed better than Windows Defender, which achieved an overall score of 11.5 out of 18 possible points. Two virus scanners from other companies, however, only managed to get 10 points. The three top programs in this test were BitDefender (17), Bullguard (16.5) and Kaspersky Lab (16) – since Bullguard uses the BitDefender engine, it's not surprising that the two programs performed in a similar fashion.

The institute plans to publish scores for the "repair" category in separate test reports at a later date in order to include longer-term tests that take rescue media and special removal tools into account along with the standard antivirus products.